mystery; familiar yet unfamiliar places

I kind of regret not starting this blog sooner, because I have a lot to post to bring myself up to date with where I am now. Anyway..
I'm not going to start from the very beginning, but I think my first photography assignment I did for Reading College is a suitable starting point. This work is probably my best example of the photography I have a greater interest in; mysterious, black and white - rather than other areas. While doing this assignment, I rediscovered a love for a certain type of photography which is quite unusual and probably not even categorized as a proper type of photography; out of focus photography. We were briefed to produce a series of night photographs, one which had to be shot on film. 2 weeks into our 4 week period and I still had pretty vague ideas of what I wanted to do. I wanted to focus on my move from Ireland to the UK, and how I felt about the life I was living at the time. I saw the move as quite a dark and sad time. I felt trapped in a city; buildings, cars, people e v e r y w h e r e  as opposed to living a tiny town, with a population of 800 and near the ocean. I also felt quite lonely. I sat and took a look at my test shots, and while they matched my original ideas, I felt they weren't quite enough. I noticed a certain sense of mystery running through them. I also noticed, without even thinking about it, I had shot a few images out of focus in each different test shoot. This is when I decided to produce an out of focus story of my everyday life at that very moment in time. I began by re-shooting at the same locations; my bedroom window, the pathway outside my gate, two of the main roads and by the river where I walk everyday to get to college. I think my final images depict exactly how I felt at the time, and what I was going through. The images are out of focus, but the fact that you can still make out a location shows that I have a slight idea of where I am, but not fully familiar with the place yet. The image by the river includes buildings that reflect on the water. These buildings trap people, but I see the river as a possible escape route out of the city. The river also reminds me of the seaside back home.

 

(Shot on Nikon D3200)

Shooting with film at night, something I had not done before, was my biggest fear; different exposure times and reciprocity law failure etc, was all a struggle the first time around. Luckily, it worked after my second attempt! The film images could be separate from our digital images, so I just shot objects around the garden and outside my gate. I think the time of night had an impact on how mysterious these images looked; 9pm appeared more mysterious than 6/7pm for some reason!

(Shot on Pentax K1000 - film (Ilford HP5 PLUS)

So I managed to complete my first assignment.. From having no idea if the work I was producing was good enough and if my journal layout was even fit for a pass grade, I was delighted to be resulted with a distinction from my work.

I'm kinda obsessed with this..